APA vs MLA Title Capitalization
APA measures prepositions; MLA classifies them. APA treats a preposition of three letters or fewer as a minor word and everything of four letters or more as major, so with, about, through and without all take a capital. MLA has no threshold at all: a preposition is a minor word however long it is. The result is a split that shows up in most real titles — Learning Without Fear in APA against Learning without Fear in MLA — and a second, larger split further down the page, in the reference list, where APA abandons title case entirely.
APA Title Capitalization
APA 7 (§6.17) capitalizes major words — nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns — and every word of four letters or more, including prepositions such as "With," "From," "About," and "Between." Only articles and conjunctions or prepositions of three letters or fewer are lowercase, and never as the first or last word.
Used in:Psychology, Social Sciences, Education, Business
APA rules
- Capitalise all major words (nouns, verbs including linking verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns)
- Capitalise every word of four letters or more — including prepositions: "With", "From", "About", "Between", "Through", "Without"
- Lowercase: articles (a, an, the)
- Lowercase: conjunctions of three letters or fewer (and, but, or, nor, for, so, yet)
- Lowercase: prepositions of three letters or fewer (of, on, in, to, at, by, up, as, via, off, out, per)
- Always capitalise first and last word
- Always capitalise the word after a colon
MLA Title Capitalization
MLA 9th edition capitalises all principal words. Articles, prepositions, and coordinating conjunctions are lowercase in the middle of a title.
Used in:Literature, Language Studies, High School, Undergraduate
MLA rules
- Capitalise all principal words
- Lowercase: articles (a, an, the)
- Lowercase: prepositions of ANY length — "about," "between," "through," "without" all stay down (this is what separates MLA from APA, AP, and Chicago)
- Lowercase: coordinating conjunctions
- First and last word always capitalised
- Capitalise both parts of hyphenated compounds
Where APA and MLA Actually Disagree
The ten titles below are run through the same capitalisation engine that powers the tool on this site — not written out by hand, so they cannot drift from what you get when you paste a title in. Each set is chosen for its own pair, built around the words nearest that pair's boundary: three-letter prepositions (via, off, out, per), four-letter ones (with, from, into, over, next, like), long ones (about, during, through, without), an infinitive "to", a colon and a hyphenated compound. 7 of the 10 titles come out differently; 3 are identical. Differing rows are marked.
| Input | APA | MLA | Same? |
|---|---|---|---|
| notes on the art of writing without fear | Notes on the Art of Writing Without Fear | Notes on the Art of Writing without Fear | differs |
| a study of migration across borders | A Study of Migration Across Borders | A Study of Migration across Borders | differs |
| talking about grief with strangers | Talking About Grief With Strangers | Talking about Grief with Strangers | differs |
| reading through the archive of memory | Reading Through the Archive of Memory | Reading through the Archive of Memory | differs |
| learning to listen over time | Learning to Listen Over Time | Learning to Listen over Time | differs |
| a walk-through of the writing process | A Walk-Through of the Writing Process | A Walk-through of the Writing Process | differs |
| living inside the question | Living Inside the Question | Living inside the Question | differs |
| from failure to mastery: a teaching model | From Failure to Mastery: A Teaching Model | From Failure to Mastery: A Teaching Model | same |
| growing up in the shadow of the war | Growing up in the Shadow of the War | Growing up in the Shadow of the War | same |
| the shape of things to come | The Shape of Things to Come | The Shape of Things to Come | same |
Where the Two Rules Separate
APA's minor words are the three articles, the coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions and conjunctions of three letters or fewer. Everything of four letters or more is a major word and takes a capital. MLA's minor words are the three articles, the coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions — full stop, with no length qualification anywhere in the rule. The two lists are identical up to three letters and diverge from four letters on.
That makes the disagreement wide rather than narrow. It is not a handful of edge cases; it is every preposition of four letters or more in the language. With, from, into, over, onto, upon, past, near, next, like, down and than go up in APA and down in MLA, and so do the long ones — about, across, after, among, before, between, beyond, during, inside, through, toward, under, until and without.
Run through the engine, a single title can carry two of these at once. talking about grief with strangers comes back as Talking About Grief With Strangers in APA and Talking about Grief with Strangers in MLA. Others move one word each: Notes on the Art of Writing Without Fear against Notes on the Art of Writing without Fear; Learning to Listen Over Time against Learning to Listen over Time; A Study of Migration Across Borders against A Study of Migration across Borders. The pattern is completely one-directional — APA capitalises, MLA does not — because there is no word MLA capitalises that APA leaves down.
Hyphenated compounds follow the same logic on both sides: a walk-through of the writing process is A Walk-Through of the Writing Process in APA and A Walk-through of the Writing Process in MLA, because MLA reads through as a preposition wherever it sits and APA counts its seven letters.
Agreement survives in three places, and they are worth knowing because they account for most short titles. Prepositions of three letters or fewer are lowercase in both: at, by, in, of, on, to, up, via, off, out and per. The infinitive to stays down in both, so From Failure to Mastery: A Teaching Model and The Shape of Things to Come are identical. And both force a capital on the first word, the last word and the first word after a colon, so subtitles never diverge on their own.
One title shows the whole MLA rule in a single line. with or without you comes back as With or Without You in APA and With or without You in MLA. The same lexical item appears twice, and MLA capitalises the first because it opens the title and lowercases the second because it is a preposition doing preposition work. APA never has to make that distinction: with is four letters in both slots, so it goes up in both.
A Common Misconception: That APA and MLA Are Interchangeable
You will find plenty of guides — and plenty of converters — claiming that APA and MLA capitalise titles identically, and that the only real difference between them sits in the bibliography. That is not correct, and the reason it spreads is a single misreading of APA: that APA lowercases every preposition regardless of length. It does not. Section 6.17 defines words of four letters or more as major words, which is exactly what separates APA from MLA. The claim that about stays lowercase in both styles fails on the simplest possible example: An Essay About Silence is APA; An Essay about Silence is MLA.
If you have read elsewhere that the two styles are interchangeable, check that source against APA's own wording before you trust it — and check whatever converter you are using against the examples in the table above.
The Reference List Is the Second, Larger Difference
Choosing between APA and MLA changes some words in your title and almost every title in your bibliography. MLA keeps title case throughout the Works Cited list: the article title, the book title and the container all stay capitalised the way they would be on a cover. APA switches article, chapter and book titles to sentence case in the References list — only the first word, the first word after a colon, and proper nouns keep their capitals — while the periodical name stays in title case.
Take a title like writing about the ocean. In an MLA Works Cited entry it keeps title case, following this shape:
Last, First. "Writing about the Ocean." Journal of Marine Studies, vol. 12, no. 3, 2021, pp. 45-67.
The same source in an APA References entry drops the title into sentence case while the journal name stays capitalised:
Last, F. (2021). Writing about the ocean. Journal of Marine Studies, 12(3), 45-67.
Both entry shapes above are format templates rather than real citations — swap in your own author, journal and page range. What matters is the contrast: Ocean in MLA, ocean in APA, and Journal of Marine Studies capitalised in both. There is a trap hiding in that pair of lines. About is lowercase in both entries, which looks like evidence that the two styles treat it the same way — but they do not. MLA lowercases it because it is a preposition; APA lowercases it only because sentence case lowercases everything that is not the first word or a proper noun. Put the same phrase in an APA heading, where title case does apply, and it comes back as Writing About the Ocean.
Converting a Title for an APA Reference List
Because APA references use sentence case, the capitaliser on this site only gets you halfway there for a References entry. Title case is the right output for your paper title, your headings and every MLA Works Cited entry. For the APA article or book title, run the same string through the sentence case mode of the case converter, then restore the capitals on proper nouns by hand — sentence case cannot tell that Marine in a place name is different from marine in a description, and no automatic conversion can.
The order matters. Capitalise the title first, check it reads correctly, and only then convert a copy to sentence case for the reference list. If you start from a sentence-case string you will have lost the information about which words were proper nouns, and you will be reconstructing it from memory.
Which One Should You Use
Use MLA for literature, languages, cultural studies and most high school and undergraduate English coursework. Use APA for psychology, education, nursing, the social sciences and business. Neither is a preference you get to exercise; both are usually set by the department or the journal.
What has changed is the cost of switching. Moving a paper between these two styles is a retitling job as well as a reference-list job. Going MLA to APA, capitalise every preposition of four letters or more; going APA to MLA, lowercase them. Then rebuild the bibliography, which is still where most of the work is. A title that was already correct in one of these styles is no longer automatically correct in the other, whatever an older version of this page told you.
See Both Styles Applied to Your Title
The fastest way to understand the difference between APA and MLA is to enter your own title and see both results. Use the style comparison tool to see your title in all nine styles simultaneously, including both APA and MLA. Or open either style guide, each of which has the capitalizer built in:
Related Comparisons
- APA vs Chicago title capitalization
- APA vs AP title capitalization
- Chicago vs MLA title capitalization
Frequently Asked Questions
What is the difference between APA and MLA title case?
Prepositions. MLA lowercases them at any length; APA lowercases only those of three letters or fewer and capitalizes anything longer. So MLA gives "Learning without Fear" and "Reading between the Lines" where APA gives "Learning Without Fear" and "Reading Between the Lines." The two styles agree on short prepositions, articles, and coordinating conjunctions.
Does APA capitalize words differently from MLA?
Yes, whenever a title contains a preposition of four letters or more. APA capitalizes "With," "From," "About," "Between," and "Without"; MLA keeps them lowercase. On titles built only from short prepositions — "A Study of the Effects of Caffeine" — the two styles produce the same result.
Which style should I use for a school paper?
It depends on the subject. APA is standard for social sciences, psychology, education, and behavioral science courses. MLA is standard for English literature, language studies, and most undergraduate humanities. Always follow your course or instructor's stated requirement.
Should I use APA or MLA for research titles?
Use APA for research in social and behavioral sciences. Use MLA for research in literature, language, and humanities. Both are equally common in academic settings — the choice depends on the field, not the type of research.
How do APA and MLA handle short words?
Both lowercase articles, coordinating conjunctions, and prepositions of three letters or fewer, so short words behave the same way in each. Longer words are where they part: APA capitalizes anything of four letters or more (matching AP), while MLA keeps prepositions lowercase however long they are.
Can I convert the same title in APA and MLA style?
Yes. The Compare Styles tool shows both APA and MLA results (and all 7 other styles) in one table.
Can I compare APA and MLA title case side by side?
Yes. Enter any title in the comparison tool and both APA and MLA results appear on the same screen.